Scott Russell Duncan
Scott Russell Duncan is a Xicano author, editor, and writing workshop director. His groundbreaking edited Chicano sci-fi anthology, El Porvenir, ¡Ya!, was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. He is the director of Palabras del Pueblo, a writing workshop for la raza. His story “How My Hide Got Color” (2016) won San Francisco Litquake’s Short Story Contest and his nonfiction, “Mexican American Psycho is in Your Dreams,” won first place in the 2019 Solstice Literary Magazine Annual Literary Contest. His novel Old California Strikes Back (FlowerSong Press 2024) mixes the reality of growing up mixed-raced with a fantasy tour of California with the head of Joaquin Murrieta. He is at work on a collection of short stories, Plurality.
Old California Strikes Back is a magical memoir and meta-novel that chronicles the journey of its mixed-race author—SRD—as he dismantles the myths surrounding Californios and the Chicano condition. Accompanied by the talking head of the folk hero Joaquin Murrieta, he records his journey on a guidebook by a self-styled Zorro as they race to grab the “Jewels of Ramona” the last unstolen relic of mythic Old California. Through this internal tour of history, personal and collective, SRD reconnects with his Californio Mexican and Native ancestors, who endured two waves of colonization and creates a dream where he can truly belong.